“Aww, Taros,” Sally crooned, kissing my father. The display was more revolting than the food, and as my stomach turned, I willed the clock to move quicker. Their affection was more forced than the farce of a family dinner.

“Vodka,” I said, kicking Maks under the table and holding my hand out so he’d pass me the bottle. My instinct was to bring the neck to my mouth and chug, but I poured a healthy amount in my glass instead. I needed to get soused to make it through the rest of the meal. I grinned when Maks slid his glass in front of me. He needed some too.

“Are we supposed to stay here past midnight?” my cousin whispered.

“I’m not,” I stated. “I have things to do.”

“Things,” he repeated with a knowing nod. “I would live vicariously through you if you weren’t so stingy with the details.”

“A gentleman never—” I started but was cut off by Maks filling in:

“Fucks before marriage.”

“You keep telling yourself that,” I laughed. “Whatever gets you through the night.”

Ingrid glared at both of us, displeased. I cringed, realizing we must have been louder than I thought, and took a healthy swing of my drink.

“So, Viktor,” Sally began, twirling her finger in one of her fluffy blonde curls. “Your father tells me your number games are going well.”

I guzzled the rest of the contents in my glass. “I don’t like to talk about business in mixed company.” It was the nicest way I could think of to say “shut the fuck up,” but the merciless showed me no mercy.

“We’re all family here,” my father reminded, and I saw Grygoriy nodding his agreement. Why wouldn’t they want to hear? Once again, I had turned a tough assignment into a lucrative one, and they were ready to take notes.

“You should be proud of your accomplishments,” Sally added. Her efforts to butter me up had me wondering if she was trying to be slick. I could not imagine how someone without ulterior motives could be so empathetic about shit they shouldn’t have cared about. “It sounds like you’re continually given challenging tasks. I can’t even begin to imagine how awful it was for you to spend so much time in Towertown. Absolutely sickening.”

“What was sickening?” Yekaterina questioned, suddenly inserting herself into the conversation. If the apple truly didn’t fall far from the tree, Maks would lay at my Aunt’s roots. They were similar in all the right ways, although Maks could have stood to shut his trap more, channeling some of his mother’s mystery.

“They were mostly homosexuals over there,” Sally stated. “Men dressing as women, rubbing against other men, kissing and worse. My stomach churns just thinking about it.”